Marcelo Rebelo de Souza is monitoring the condition of the Portuguese who helped prevent the attacker’s escape to Annecy.

The President of the Republic said this Friday that he was monitoring the health of a Portuguese man who on Thursday helped prevent an attacker from escaping from police at a playground in Annecy, in the French Alps.

“Fortunately, the situation is stable,” Marcelo Rebel de Sousa told reporters over a glass of red wine at a restaurant in Peso da Régua.

The Head of State said that he became aware of the case while on an air flight between South Africa and Portugal, which marks the Day of Portugal, Camões and Portuguese Communities this year.

“Precisely because he wanted to stand between the attacker and the victim, he was hit by the police and the attacker (…) We already have more or less information about him, but additional information is still being collected,” he added.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who was awaiting his arrival in Peso da Régua, also said French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the Portuguese citizen involved in the attack shows that “he knows what he owes to the Portuguese in France.”

The issued note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that the citizen of Portugal was seriously injured, but at present his life is not in danger.

“At the time of the tragic event, a Portuguese citizen, trying to prevent the attacker from escaping from the police, was seriously injured and is currently out of danger,” the note says, adding that he must “act of courage and courage, words of deep gratitude.”

On Thursday, a knife attacker wounded six people, including four young children, in a park in the French Alps town of Annecy and was arrested after the attack, the French interior ministry said.

The attack triggered an avalanche of backlash in the political world, with right-wing and far-right parliamentarians highlighting the origin and status of the attacker, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee.

According to the French prosecutor’s office, the attacker’s motives have not yet been clarified, and there are no “obvious terrorist motives” for the attack.

The attacker Abdelmasih H. is in police custody and will undergo a psychiatric examination this Friday.

In some videos circulating online, the attacker can be heard shouting “in the name of Jesus Christ” during the attack.

The attacker was wearing a crucifix, and among his belongings was a prayer book. He declared himself a Christian when he applied for asylum.

Ten years ago, he received refugee status in Sweden, where he married and has a child with a woman he separated from last year.

Since the end of 2022, he has been in France, where he applied for asylum, but does not have a permanent address.

The answer to his asylum application, which was negative, came to him last Sunday, that is, a few days before the terrorist attack in the park in Annecy, as stressed by the French authorities.